**UPDATE** As expected, Skittles updated their site with Facebook as its main page, as opposed to Twitter. Of course, you can still access the Twitter page by clicking on the “chatter” tab.
It may just be that Skittles intended on rotating the main page, but this change could also be in response to some of the not-so-appropriate chatter invading the Twitter stream. Regardless, and rather intelligent of them, Skittles has made some sort of rseponsible change but still kept it’s original vision of allowing the consumer to define their brand. We still like it.
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Just a few days ago, we were talking about how consumers feedback can impact a brand, and now one brand has completely opened itself up and allowed its customers to define its existence – very open and very honestly.
As you may have seen, Skittles has overhauled its website, and it does not include any hokey corporate messaging. Alternatively, it features links to Skittles across the most popular social networks. The main page is the live search.twitter.com feed that defaults to the search term “Skittles,” and the media link connects users to the brand’s Flickr and YouTube channels. Even the product descriptions are placed in the hands of consumers as each product links directly to its Wikipedia entry.
Despite our deep infatuation with Twitter, however, we still think it may have not been the wisest decision to lead in with this as it has the greatest risk of being abused by users. While there is a little bit more room for brand control on Flickr, YouTube, Facebook, etc., Twitter is in real-time. And those real-time remarks are seen by everyone who visits the site.
So far, though, it appears that this openness is working out very well for them. Sure, people may take advantage of the situation and post a few inappropriate messages, but the ultimate goal of allowing consumers to define the brand is accomplished. A tweet we recently read on Skittles homepage said, “wow, when was the last time you tweeted about Skittles” – the candy is now leading the way on the trending topics list.
